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Tuesday, March 22, 2011

The Fishmax fishing team recently headed north to PNG to try our hand at some PNG offshore fishing and estuary fishing for barramundi and the famed Papuan Black Bass. Inspite of the fact that some our our team told their better halves that we were sleeping under a blue tarp on the edge of a crocodile infested swamp, our camp was the Driftwood resort located on the shores of Milne Bay. The resort consists of 7 waterfront bungalows. The accommodation was more than comfortable, the staff very friendly and the food in the over water restaurant on the jetty was wonderful. Our first day was offshore on the Driftwood 27 foot centre console glassy.

We headed out of Milne Bay then south past offshore islands including Samari island, the ex provincial capital of Mine Bay province. Trolling our Reidy's Big Boss lures along the fringing reefs our first hook up was a stonker of a GT, which Stevo landed after 25 minutes of huffing and puffing. His PB for a GT, the fish measured 97cm and weighed an estimated 17kg. Half an hour later more fun when we had a triple hook up on a school of 1.2 metre Barracuda. These fish went wild once hooked up with 4 to 5 aerial leaps before bringing them along side. Other catch for the day were a half dozen green jobfish. No spanairds or bill fish that day, but still a great day out in some of the most beautiful tropical waters that you could find.

A big thanks to Colin and Karen from Reidy’s lures who provided the lures for our trip. The Big Boss lures performed superbly trolling these waters at 6 to 7 knots. We used both the 3 and 5 metre depth versions. The Big Boss lures are a quality Australian made product, manufactured at Reidy’s Darwin factory. No need to upgrade the hardware on these lures as the Big Boss lures come with heavy duty split rings and hooks. We found the brightly coloured green/golds of the M15, 035, the fluro EJ’s and the ever popular ‘Qantas’ red/white 034 to convert the best for us during our time in PNG. For more info on these great lures visit http://www.reidyslures.com/.